Get serious, Los Angeles!
Richard Valitutto, Pianospheres Jan 14photo: Jonathan Nesteruk It’s January. So, no excuses. Clear the eggnog out of your noggin — and get ready for some serious art. In Los Angeles, it’s all around us. Artists and their presenters are hitting the new decade afresh, and with force. It does not get headier than the L.A. ...
Sin in style! High-fashion pre-Code double-bill at The Egyptian
Made between 1930, when the restrictive Production Code was adopted, and 1934, when it was in full effect, “pre-Code” films are beloved for their provocative content and risqué style. A Sunday double-bill screening program devoted to pre-Code films is hosted by the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles. The afternoon begins at one p.m. with ...
Our good luck! 13 years of ‘German Currents’
Oct
5
2019
What is the German word for cinephile? “Cinephile”! Germany has its own illustrious film culture and history, with a lineage of giants bearing names like F.W. Mureau, Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, Max Ophuls in the realm of classic cinema. Subsequent key names include Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Volker Schlöndorff, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Tom ...
Remembering filmmaker Peter Mays 1
Mar
15
2019
Turn, by Peter Mays, screening March 31 Peter Mays, a sweet soul who passed away on March 4, 2019, was a Los Angeles treasure. Peter grew up in Los Angeles and attended UCLA where he majored in painting and minored in mathematics. I had the pleasure of some holiday meals with him hosted by his ...
Check out Cinecon 54’s early movie-musicals 2
Aug
23
2018
Cinecon 54, the dawn-till-midnight film festival of the arcane, the rare, the undiscovered-then-lovingly-embraced gems of early cinema, marks the end of summer, running, as always, through Labor Day weekend. Opening night, Thursday August 30, features a reception in the Egyptian Theatre courtyard followed by the screening of a new restoration of the 1924 silent film ...
Live, again, on Hollywood Boulevard: Jackie Wilson
Kind of a stunning cultural moment to attend the first-ever Hologram-only theater right on the tourist strip of Hollywood Boulevard. A block from the Egyptian Theatre, it’s a wholesome entertainment addition to the ‘hood. Last week, we attended a debut screening of a hologram-homage to a great r&b/early-rock artist, Jackie Wilson. Now, gosh. This strip ...
Filmforum to screen radical-60s-cinema take on black power
Mar
19
2018
Over the course of the year, L.A. Filmforum will present screenings that reflect the the turbulent global events of 1968 from the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert Kennedy to the Democratic Convention and 1968 presidential election in the US, to the strikes in France in May and the Prague Spring and Soviet ...
Bullock’s Wilshire former retail glory @ Art Deco Society talk & screening 1
A beacon of Art Deco wonderment, the iconic Bullock’s Wilshire Department Store still stands on Wilshire Boulevard. Designed by Parkinson and Parkinson in 1928, the legendary building is considered a preservation success story; it is now repurposed as the Southwestern School of Law’s law library. Eh. Okay. They dare not tear it down because among ...
‘Starring Europe’ top film picks: from France, from Italy
May
10
2017
Well, they all look so good, don’t they? The fourth annual European film festival in Los Angeles, Starring Europe: New Films from the EU, kicked off with a swinging red carpet/gala reception in the peerless courtyard of Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre last night. Remarks prior to the opening-night feature, MELLOW MUD, a Latvian film, indicate that ...
Opens tonight! STARRING EUROPE filmfest
May
9
2017
Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland and Spain. Wouldn’t you just love to get on a slow boat and visit them all? Boat trip perhaps not necessary. Nor a flight ticket. Starting tonight, Tuesday May 9 and running through May 15, the American Cinematheque will host ...